


Friends

by Leona_Esperanza



Series: Cancelling the Apocalypse - in Life's Name [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post Apocalyptic Cancellation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-16
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-15 21:57:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1320628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leona_Esperanza/pseuds/Leona_Esperanza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a word that Newt never thought Hermann would use to refer to him, in the Speech or any other language.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends

For the second time, LOCCENT erupted into frenzied cheering. Somehow, Mako and Raleigh _both_ surviving the destruction of the Breach was almost as stunning as the destruction of the Breach itself. It was one more small victory, after the enormous victory just gained – and just before reality was due to set in, the realization of all those losses, some quite recent, that made those victories possible.

Newt stared out at the crowd – and who the hell let all these people in LOCCENT, anyway? – struggling to find the words to explain. All these years of hiding who he was, _what_ he was, from the one person he’d feared would discover his secret – and the one person with whom he’d longed to share that secret…

Hermann’s shoulder bumped against his. Newt was aware of his fellow scientist, his partner, his friend, also staring out at the crowd, avoiding Newt’s gaze. Newt wasn’t the only one who was scared, and that realization triggered a memory –

_“– I will put aside fear for courage –”_

– a memory which both was and was not his own.

“So, uh…” Newt cleared his throat nervously, still looking at the LOCCENT techs, watching as Tendo moved through the crowd, slapping shoulders in congratulations. There was no one in their immediate vicinity, but even so, he lowered his voice to a rough whisper. “I – I’m on errantry, and I greet you.”

In his peripheral vision, Newt saw Hermann fidget with the grip on his cane. There was the briefest pause, and then Hermann was whispering back:

“Well met on the errand – my friend.”

_That_ was enough to break Newt’s paralysis. He turned, eyes wide, and saw Hermann standing there with his head bowed, a nervous smile on his lips and a faint blush on his cheeks –

– because he hadn’t used the more common of the Speech’s terms for a fellow wizard: _hrasht_ , usually translated as ‘cousin.’ No, Hermann had addressed Newt by the far more familiar _thelef’_ , a designation that Newt would never have expected to hear from Hermann’s lips, in the Speech or any other language.

_And he_ said _it in the Speech, and he’s a wizard – Hermann’s a wizard! – so that means he really means it…_

It felt like a million pounds had suddenly slipped from Newt’s shoulders. Grinning widely, he threw one arm across Hermann’s shoulders, pulling him closer in a gesture of affection that, despite all the years of constant bickering and the occasional all-out fight, felt perfectly natural.

“I always thought the fact that you never went _anywhere_ without a stick of chalk was a little strange,” Newt said as they turned once again to watch the celebration. A muted pop and a splatter of liquid on concrete announced that at least one LOCCENT tech had kept a bottle of champagne squirreled away in anticipation of just this moment – the end of a long and arduous war that most of humanity believed they would never win.

“Well, I always thought your addiction to your smartphone went a little too far, even in this day and age,” Hermann countered, casting a sidelong glance at Newt. “Good to know you weren’t _always_ wasting your time reblogging pictures of cats in silly outfits. Which, by the way –”

“I’m taking them down right now,” Newt said, pulling his phone out of his back pocket and swiping to unlock the screen. The apple logo – minus the bite – was replaced with the login screen for a popular blog site. “How was _I_ supposed to know that was the lead worldgate tech for London? You’d think a wizard could keep embarrassing pictures of herself off the internet, wouldn’t you? Even if she _is_ a cat.”

“Oh, Newton…”

Later, there would be serious discussions about the deceptions each had employed to keep their status secret. Later, there would be the usual disagreements, and some new ones, about what constituted “acceptable risk” in times of war. Hermann would lose his shit over the failed intervention with the whale-wizards that almost resulted in Newt’s demise, and Newt would have angry words of his own regarding the attempt to close the worldgate-Breach that cost Hermann five years off his lifespan. But for now…

“So, Hermann, what would you say if I told you I know this awesome little restaurant at the Crossings on Rirhath B? They have this amazing blue dessert, and they take Godiva in trade.”

“Newton, please don’t make me report you for illegal chocolate smuggling. You’re in enough trouble with Ff’isss as it is…”

No one noticed when the two K-Science wizards disappeared from LOCCENT, though Tendo later wondered why Dr. Gottlieb had felt the need to scribble mathematical equations in chalk all over the floor.


End file.
